Fear and Paranoia - "With God as my witness, we are going to... dismantle and destroy [the left]"

The vice president hosted the Charlie Kirk show from Washington D.C. on Monday and had Steven Miller on as his guest. Even that by itself is a totally insane headline, but it gets much worse.

JD Vance has assailed what he called the “far left” and its increased tolerance for violence while guest-hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday, saying the administration would be working to dismantle groups who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents.

Vance said the administration would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”.

Miller also detailed how the administration would use the federal government to achieve this goal.

“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, [Department of] Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” Miller said, adding that they would do this “in Charlie’s name”.

Miller said he had been feeling “incredible sadness, but there’s incredible anger” and would be focusing his “righteous anger” on the “organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks”.

Detailing what he believes is a “vast domestic terror movement”, Miller pointed to what he said were “organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging designed to trigger, incite violence, and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/15/jd-vance-charlie-kirk-podcast

Do you feel the fear? The paranoia?

Do you feel it? The fear that they might come after you for what you’ve said online? The fear that someone you know might turn you in because you said the “wrong” thing?

This fear is exceptional for us but common for those who have lived under repressive authoritarian regimes. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, talked about visiting eastern Europe shortly after the fall of the USSR and the level of paranoia the people there still had, how no one would talk to you in public and people would avert their gaze. One of my earliest memories is my mother frantically silencing me after I chanted some word I’d heard my father chant. She silenced me for fear of a neighbor overhearing. This was after my father had been taken in by the secret police.

Imagine that, being afraid of government reprisal because of what a two year old repeated. There is still a deep lack of trust in the Chinese society. This is the dark future of America - suspicion and paranoia.

This, friends, is authoritarianism. This fear is foreign to Americans. The first amendment exists to protect us from having to fear government reprisal for what we say. Ironically Charlie Kirk is held up by the right as a champion of free speech and ardent defender of the first amendment and now his murder, at the hands of another far-right extremist, is being used by this regime to attack the regime’s political enemies: “the radical left.”

You’re right. This isn’t legal. This isn’t constitutional. This doesn’t make any sense, because it’s complete nonsense. Based on Tyler Robinson’s family, friends, and online activity he was a member of a far-right group that followed Nick Fuentes. Fuentes is an unabashed Nazi. He openly and proudly claims vile antisemitic, racist, and genocidal views. He’s been feuding with Charlie Kirk for years because he believes Kirk isn’t extreme enough.

Even if it had been a far-left radical, that still doesn’t justify government persecution of individuals and organizations based on their rhetoric. If they want to go down that rabbit hole they should start with the extreme right media which daily calls for political violence, often against others on the right who they perceive as not being far enough right.

A decorated Marine Corps colonel assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon appeared on a podcast co-hosted by his brother that promotes antisemitism, white supremacy and political violence — including one segment that appeared to call for the execution of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. - Rawstory

The truth doesn’t matter under authoritarians. The laws don’t matter. They control the means of enforcement. What good is a law or constitution if the ones enforcing that law simply ignore it?

That’s what’s going to happen. They’re openly stating their plan. They are going to use this murder to bring the power of the state to bear on their political enemies. Just like the Nazi regime used the Reichstag fire to attack communists and consolidate their power in Germany.

The fear you feel is justified. The danger is real. But we must not comply in advance. We must not police ourselves. The regime will attack some prominent journalists, organizations, and activists with the goal of silencing everyone else through fear. We must not allow that to happen.

We must not allow them to devour us piecemeal. We must stand with immigrants and trans individuals now and anyone they label a leftist terrorist.

Domestic Terrorists

Miller said he had been feeling “incredible sadness, but there’s incredible anger” and would be focusing his “righteous anger” on the “organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks”.

We already have the blueprint for what they intend to do to terrorists. The 260 innocent humans sent to El Salvador were merely accused of belonging to the gang TDA, which had been labeled as a terrorist organization, and that was enough pretext for them to be sent to a hellhole prison without any due process.

On Monday trump posted another snuff film, announcing that the US military had murdered three more people off the coast of Venezuela.

“Trump said on Monday that three men were killed in the attack on "violent drug trafficking cartels". He provided no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs.” - BBC

This regime has shown that it will deport, imprison, and kill anyone they deem a terrorist without any sort of due process. It seems far-fetched that they would drone-strike “radical leftists” inside the United States doesn’t it? I agree. That does still seem impossible, but I caution you. Look at how much has already happened in this country that we all thought was impossible.

When mad men tell you what they intend, we should believe them. Arguing with each other and them about how it’s illegal or unjust or “crazy” won’t help. They’ve already shown that they are willing. They are telling us, right now, that they want to wage war on half of America. They have already deployed troops to American streets. Trump has posted that he intends to wage war on Chicago. Just today he signed an EO to deploy troops in Memphis, TN.

Right wing elected officials, pundits, and influencers are all calling to wage war on the left. We should believe them.